SOM (Caspian, Constants, Junius) Burn Up In The Atmosphere In Their New Video

Exclusive: The latest from shoegaze supergroup SOM is a somber journey into the beyond.

PHOTO: Eric Jernigan

For SOM, tone is everything. The Massachusetts-based quartet, featuring members of such shoegaze and post-rock heavy hitters as Caspian, Junius, and Constants, play the kind of somber, glimmering music that exudes a heavy fog of emotion and introspection around it. On their full-length debut The Fall, the band take their time crafting tracks that even in their more punishing moments are thick with sentiment, good and bad. It’s this resonance that has made them a hit in underground music circles, and will undoubtedly draw in fans of acts like Deftones and Chevelle who are looking for something a little more subterranean.

Stranger, the band’s new animated music video, interprets this sense of gravitas on a massive scale. Designed and animated by Austin Marola, it shows an astronaut stranded in space after his ship falls to pieces, witnessing the death of a star. As the force of the supernova propels him further into the void, he seems imbued with his own powerful light, and eventually becomes a celestial body. That poignant hopelessness, coupled with the stipple style of the animation, makes this a powerful display of where SOM are coming from.